


Penpals

by VampAmber



Series: SPN ABO Bingo: Round One [20]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha Castiel (Supernatural), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Childhood Sweethearts, Complete, First Meetings, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Kid Fic, M/M, Oblivious Dean, Omega Dean, One Shot, SPN A/B/O Bingo, Scent bonds, Scenting, True Mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 21:18:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12779709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampAmber/pseuds/VampAmber
Summary: Some people go their entire lives without meeting that perfect person for them. Some meet them really early on. Dean Winchester and Castiel Shurley were part of the latter group.Pointless fluff with oblivious idiots in love.





	Penpals

**Author's Note:**

> I am freaking exhausted after getting very little sleep last night (stupid psychiatrist appointment that wasn't actually an appointment that I drove over half an hour to get to for nothing *grumble grumble*), so no witty banter here, sorry. I will give you a fic though, cuz I'm nice that way. XD
> 
> The square I used for this one was **Accidental Scent Bond**. This one gives me another bingo, and takes me down to only four remaining. Yays!

“Whatcha makin’?” Dean asked the messy haired boy sitting alone in the playground's sandbox.

“A castle,” the boy replied, even though it looked more like a lump than anything else right now. When Dean told him that, the boy glared at him. His mom was always on him about his manners, though, so Dean apologized immediately.

“Want some help?” Dean asked. “I'm really good at making towers.”

The boy thought for a few seconds, then smiled shyly as he nodded his head.

Dean plopped down next to the boy and started on making the first tower. “I'm Dean. Did you just move here? Cuz I’ve never seen you around before.”

“No, I’m just visiting my grandma for the summer,” the boy said. “My name's Castiel, but it's really hard to say sometimes so you can just call me Cas.”

“Hi Cas,” Dean said, and held out his hand. His dad always said it was important to have a firm handshake when meeting someone important, and Dean figured Cas totally counted as important. Cas just stared at his outstretched hand, confused squint to his eyes.

“Little kids don't shake hands like that,” Cas finally said when Dean still didn't take his hand back.

“I'm not a little kid,” Dean pouted. “I'm gonna be seven in January.”

“Well, I’m gonna be eight in September, and I'm still a little kid, so that means you are too,” Cas explained. Dean slumped his shoulders and sulked until Cas rolled his eyes and took Dean’s hand to shake. The older boy’s hand was warm, and felt right in Dean’s. They shook for far longer than most people do because they both enjoyed the feeling, but neither of them knew that.

“So you’re here for the rest of the summer?” Dean asked when they finally let go.

“Yep, ‘til the end of August,” Cas said, biting his tongue as he concentrated on making the front gate area.

“I live over there,” Dean said as he pointed at his house across the street from the park. “You can come visit me whenever you wanna hang out or play. My grandpa bought me a couple video games for Christmas last year and they’re really fun.”

“My parents don’t like me playing video games,” Cas said with a sigh.

“Really?” Dean asked. When Cas nodded, Dean scooted over to hug the boy, noticing that he smelled really good, kind of like his favorite cookies. “Would they know if you played them at my house?” He didn’t want to get Cas in trouble, but he already really liked the boy and wanted to help him have fun.

Cas leaned into the sideways hug as he looked like he was thinking really hard. “Not unless somebody tells them,” the older boy said after a few more moments of contemplation.

“I would never, I swear,” Dean promised. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

“Can we play them now?” Cas said, looking up at Dean, who was taller even though he was a year younger.

“Don’t wanna finish the castle?” Dean asked, even though now he really wanted to play the games too. He just figured he should be polite and ask. He knew his mom would be proud.

“I can make sand castles whenever I want. I can’t play video games at home, though,” Cas said excitedly, and that was all it took to convince Dean. They rushed to the other side of the playground, where Cas’ grandma lived, to ask if it was okay. Dean had met Naomi Shurley a few times, and she was a bit cold but not in a mean way, so she said it was fine as long as Cas was back in time for dinner at six. Once they had permission, they raced back over to Dean’s house to play.

“Mom, this is my new friend Cas, can we play video games together?” Dean shouted in one loud breath as he rushed inside, dragging a slightly bewildered Cas behind him.

“Dean, what have we told you about indoor voices?” His mom asked, peeking her head out from the kitchen where the scent of pie ingredients was drifting out.

“That I don’t have one?” Dean responded, since his dad made that joke all the time.

His mom let out a small laugh, making a tiny bit of flour shake loose from her hair. “No, that you should use yours more often, silly,” she playfully reprimanded him. “As long as you two are quiet, you can play until dinner.” Both boys agreed, and she nodded once before going back to her baking.

“I have a racing one, and one with mazes, and there’s even one where you fight monsters,” Dean explained quietly as they went upstairs to his bedroom. “Which one do you wanna play?”

Cas just looked around Dean’s bedroom in awe. It was messy like always, with toys and clothes and trading cards scattered over the floor, but Dean knew that it was nothing special since his friend from school Benny’s always looked way worse. “Your parents don’t yell at you for not cleaning your room?” Cas asked, poking his toe at a small pile of toy cars.

“I have to clean it every Sunday, but as long as it’s not too bad they don’t yell on the other days,” Dean replied, sitting down in front of the thirteen inch television set that was by his bed.

“My parents would throw a fit if I had two shirts on the floor,” Cas said, sitting down next to Dean. “They always want me to be perfect.”

“That sounds awful, I’m sorry Cas,” Dean said before giving the boy another hug. The cookie smell was even stronger, and this time Cas hugged back. They held the hug longer than normal, just like the handshake, but neither of them noticed that, either. “Now let’s play the monster fighting one, I think you’ll really like it.”

“Okay,” Cas agreed, and they pulled apart to play video games for the rest of the afternoon.

Dean waved as Cas left that evening, his grandma having come to claim him for dinner. The rest of the summer, the two boys were inseparable, always found either at the playground or in Dean’s bedroom.

“I wish you weren’t going home next week,” Dean lamented as the two lay in the open patch of grass on the west side of the playground near the middle of August, blowing the heads off the dandelions. “School doesn’t start for a while, and Sammy’s only two so he’s no fun to play with.”

“We could be penpals?” Cas suggested. “My teacher last year told us about them, and we all had to write a letter to a kid in some school in Arizona.”

“So we’d write letters?” Dean asked, dejected. “I’m still not great at writing.”

“Maybe we can talk on the phone, too?” Cas added, making Dean perk back up again. “I know my phone number by heart and can give it to you.”

“That works,” Dean said, scooting a little closer. It wouldn’t be as nice as having Cas actually here, smelling like cookies and other things Dean loved, but it was better than nothing. He took in a deep breath, loving how his friend smelled so good. “You smell like chocolate chip cookies when my mom makes them from scratch,” he said. They had developed the habit of describing how the other smelled, wondering if the scents meant anything about whether they’d present as an alpha, an omega, or a beta.

“If I’m cookies, then maybe I’ll be an omega cuz they like to bake sometimes,” Cas pondered out loud. “You smell kinda like that apple pie your mom was making when we met. Maybe that means we’ll both be omegas?”

“That’d be nice,” Dean said, cuddling up close to Cas. “We could be omega besties, like my babysitter Charlie says sometimes.”

“I’d like that,” Cas said, snuggling closer to Dean. “I wish I didn’t hafta go, too. I’ll miss you, Dean.”

“I’ll miss you too, Cas,” Dean said sadly.

“I’ll come back next summer,” Cas said, determined to keep his promise. “And we can play all the time again.”

“That’d be awesome,” Dean told him, already picturing the adventures they could have next year.

Dean cried when Cas finally left, and he cried when Naomi Shurley fell on some ice checking her mail in February and had to move in with Cas’ aunt Hester when her broken hip didn’t heal right. The two boys talked on the phone twice a month, but it just wasn’t the same. Dean learned how to write better so that they could at least send letters back and forth, and that helped.

Dean was in fifth grade, and Cas was in sixth when they started sending emails instead. It was so much easier, and didn’t even involve stamps or going to the mailbox. Dean never mentioned that he missed the faint, lingering scent of chocolate chip cookies that the physical letters sometimes had, because at least now he could write as much as he wanted as often as he wanted.

When Cas presented as an alpha two weeks after his thirteenth birthday, Dean was the first person he told through instant message, even before his parents. When Dean presented as an omega a year and a half later, he did the same with Cas. Cas never did get to come back to visit, but at least when Dean entered high school his parents finally let him get a webcam for his computer so that they could video chat.

“The guys at school are being jerks again,” Dean complained, leaning back in his chair. He was sixteen, yet he still got picked on for being an omega, and he often had to stop Cas from hopping a bus to come beat up the bullies for him.

“You need to tell the teachers,” Cas responded. The audio was fine, but the picture was a little jerky because Cas’ webcam wasn’t the greatest. Dean watched his friend take a sip of soda, and once again wished that the guy didn’t live over five hundred miles away.

“You know that only makes them pick on me more, Cas,” Dean reminded him. Azazel and his gang of jerks loved to tease all the omega guys in school because they were sexist knotheads who still thought omegas were weak and only good for breeding.

“I wish I were there to help,” Cas sighed, putting his can down and moving closer to the camera. “Hell, I wish I was there at all,” he said, starting the conversation they usually had at least once a week lately. “I miss hanging out with you. I know it was only that one summer, but you’re the best friend I’ve ever had, Dean.”

“You’re my best friend too, Cas,” Dean replied, as always. “But it’s probably good you’re not here. I have a hard enough time not punching those guys, especially Gordon, so you might end up in detention for fighting.”

“You’re way better at fighting than me,” Cas said with a chuckle. “I’d just be helping by holding them down for you.”

Dean let out a laugh. “At least you’d be awesome at it. You’re freaking built, dude.” Cas had recently started a part time job unloading shipping trucks, and you could tell by his arm muscles. Just looking at them made Dean feel damn impressed.

“I may be more muscular, but you’re the one with the good looks, assbutt,” Cas teased. This was another conversation they had often. “That Lisa girl still trying for you?”

“She got bored when I wouldn’t say yes to a date. She just…” Dean paused, trying to figure out how to say what he was thinking. “She doesn’t smell right, you know? Not bad, just not right.”

“I understand completely,” Cas replied. “There’s this girl at school, April, and she smells off, too. They always tell you that you’ll know your mate when you meet them, but I just haven’t found anybody that didn’t smell off like her yet. It’s annoying.”

“Yeah, I keep hoping for someone that smells kinda like how you did when we were kids, but nothing here.” They both sighed and slumped their shoulders at the same time, completely oblivious to the obvious.

“Why’d you have to schedule your campus tour during spring break?” Cas groaned from the other end of the phone call two years later. “I could’ve shown you that hole in the wall diner with the great burgers.”

“Relax, Cas,” Dean chided him from the backseat of his parents’ car as they were heading back home. Dean had been spending the last few days of his senior year spring break looking at colleges, and last on the list had been the one Cas was currently enrolled at. “The place has the best engineering department I’ve seen so far, so even if it wasn’t the same college you go to I’d probably still pick it. We can hang out whenever you want in the fall, I promise.”

“You’d better get in, then,” Cas grumped, making Dean laugh.

“Oh, I totally will. Sammy’s gonna help me with the essays as soon as we get home, aren’t you runt?” Dean elbowed his little brother in the side and laughed again when Sam shot him a bitchface. “Watch it, you might stunt your growth,” Dean teased before going back to his conversation on the phone.

“It’d be so great to finally see you again,” Cas said.

“I got in!” Dean shouted a month later, waving the acceptance letter in front of the camera lens. “I start in the fall!” This definitely wasn’t his inside voice, but he was too excited to care.

“Congratulations,” Cas said, huge smile plastered on his face. “Which dorm are you in?”

“Oak View,” Dean read off the paper that came in the information packet. He had conveniently forgot to tell Cas that the only place he’d applied to so far was Cas’ college. He missed his friend and wanted them to finally be close again.

“Seriously?” Cas asked, looking shocked. “Me too. Which floor?”

Dean scanned the paperwork. “Third floor, room three-oh-seven.”

“Damn, I’m the second floor,” Cas said, snapping his fingers. “But at least I’m right downstairs from you. They put me in two-oh-seven.”

“I’ll make sure to take up clog dancing,” Dean joked. “Especially really early in the morning.”

“You must have a death wish, Winchester,” Cas growled as Dean chuckled.

“I will bring you coffee in bed instead, then,” Dean compromised.

“I may forgive you,” Cas said. “Eventually.”

“And fix you peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?”

“Or I could just forgive you now,” Cas said with a laugh.

“You are so cheap to bribe,” Dean pointed out.

“Only with you Dean,” Cas pointed back.

“Because you’re madly in love with me?” Dean joked like always.

“Of course, Dean,” Cas joked back.

“We’re about two minutes away,” Dean said to Cas on move-in day that September. “You already done?”

“Have been for over an hour, unlike some people,” Cas teased through the phone’s speaker. 

Dean’s dad had given him a beat up old Chevy Impala for a graduation present, and he was talking on speaker phone as he drove behind the tiny moving van containing all his worldly possessions. “You cheated, you live closer,” Dean said as he made the turn into the part of campus where the dorms were located.

“At least this means I can help you with your stuff when your lazy butt gets here,” Cas said, the sound scratchy as Dean went over one of the speed bumps.

“Just pulled up front, but there’s two more things in front of me so there’s extra walking. That means your butt can’t be lazy,” Dean said, hearing what sounded like a door slamming in the background. Then he saw what he could only assume was Cas, waving at him by the main entrance to the building. He honked his horn real quick. “Over here,” Dean said before hanging up and turning his car off. He had just closed the door behind him when he was tackled by a hug and the most incredible scent ever.

“Dean!” Cas shouted happily, squeezing the omega for all he was worth.

“Hey Cas,” Dean said as he reached around to return the hug. The scent enveloped him, and he sniffed at Cas’ neck without realizing it. It was still chocolate chip cookies, but now it was also cut grass and a fresh breeze, almost like a picnic in the countryside.

“God, what cologne are you wearing, Dean? Because you smell incredible,” Cas said as he shoved his nose into Dean’s neck. “Like apple pie and aged leather and sunshine.” Cas pulled back, stunned. “Like…”

Dean knew exactly what he was talking about. “Like mate,” he whispered.

“But we…” Cas said, right as Dean asked “How?”

“Took you idiots long enough,” Sam said from the other side of the Impala, startling both of them into jumping apart. “It’s been obvious you guys were in love since I was a kid,” the fourteen year old said smugly. “Add that to the fact that Dean’s smelled mated since he presented, and I kinda figured you guys must’ve scent bonded when he visited.”

“You can scent bond before you present?” Dean asked, while Cas just stared at Sam in disbelief.

“Only if you’re true mates, sweetie,” Dean’s mom said, coming up behind Sam. Was everybody here to witness this?

“Did Dean and Cas finally figure out the obvious, Mary?” Dean’s dad called from the back of the moving van. Mary nodded, and Dean blushed.

“I thought there was something about you two that summer, but it wasn’t until you presented, Dean, that I knew,” his mom said, smiling.

“Why didn’t you say something?” Dean asked, feeling overwhelmed. Cas was his true mate?

“I was waiting for you to figure it out on your own. It only took a little over a decade,” she teased.

“How did you even get into college?” Sam asked sarcastically.

“Shut it, pipsqueak,” Dean growled.

“Dean?” Cas asked softly.

Dean’s entire attention shifted over to his best friend who was apparently his true mate. “Yeah, Cas?”

“Is this what you want?” Cas looked at him earnestly.

“For you to be my true mate?” Cas nodded, so Dean answered “Damn straight I do.”

“Good,” Cas said, looking relieved, as if there was any chance in any universe that Dean would say no to him. “I just thought I’d ask before I did this.” Then before Dean had the chance to even ask ‘what’, Cas had grabbed him by the face and pulled him in for a kiss. Dean felt his knees about to buckle, but Cas must have sensed it because while his lips were still on Dean’s, his arms snaked around his back. Dean forgot that his parents and little brother were watching, and kissed Cas for all he was worth.

When they finally pulled apart, Dean muttered “Holy crap, Cas.”

“I’ve wanted to do that for years now, but never said anything because I didn’t think you felt the same,” Cas admitted.

“I think I always did, but you were my friend and I just assumed it was what best friends felt like,” Dean said as he scratched at his head. “I guess I am a bit of an idiot.”

“Well, I love you anyway,” Cas said, hugging him tightly.

“I think I love you too, Cas, ever since we were kids,” Dean said into his true mate’s hair. He was still shorter than Dean, but only by an inch or so.

“If you two are done, we still have to get all your stuff up to your dorm before we leave, Dean,” his dad reminded them.

“Sorry, Dad,” Dean said as they broke apart. He’d feel bad if it weren’t for the fact that they still had their whole lives to look forward to. They’d started a bit earlier than most, but the end result was just as wonderful.

**Author's Note:**

> Kinda funny that for my 69th fic, I wrote tooth rotting fluff. Or maybe I'm the only one amused? *shrugs*


End file.
